


Chasing Ghosts

by tsunderen



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Crimes & Criminals, Detectives, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Investigations, Kidnapping, Major Character Injury, Missing Persons, Mystery, Psychological Drama, Suspense, Temporary Amnesia, Torture, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-17 18:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5880424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsunderen/pseuds/tsunderen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiganshina was what people would regard as a quiet sleepy town in the countryside. Everyone knew everyone and nothing bad ever happened there. That is until two boys go missing. Detective Levi Ackerman along with his partner Detective Hanji Zoe are put in charge of the case, and just when they feel like all hope is lost a breakthrough happens.</p><p>One of the boys is found, alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is very loosely based off the british TV drama 'Broadchurch'. The story isn't the same just the mood and the setting are similar. I wanted to write something that gave the same feeling of suspence and mystery as the show did. I also openly admit that i'm not the best of writers, but i'll try my very best!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy!

**Eren Jaeger**

**January 26th 2016**

 

The first thing Eren felt when he woke up was the cold. It was harsh, cruel and painful; biting at his skin like a thousand tiny needles. He was lying on his back and staring up towards the night sky, his entire body ached and every movement caused a sharp pain to erupt in several parts of his body. It was a clear night, and the stars were beautiful, speckled along the night sky like glitter. As he lay there he remembered that Armin, Mikasa and himself would often spend their childhood evenings lying in his garden, staring up at the stars and pointing out the constellations they knew.

Of course Armin knew the most, out of the three of them he was the intelligent one, calm and collected. Mikasa was the oldest, overprotective at times but loving. Eren was the hothead, quick to fight and quick to argue, but fiercely loyal. Eren loved listening to Armin talk so passionately about the stars, or anything really. He liked to close his eyes and listen to his friend talk with his soft and soothing voice. Anytime the three of them got to spend together Eren treasured deeply.

 _“My minds a mess, why am I thinking about this now?”_ Eren thought to himself, bringing his hand to his forehead and crinkling his eyes shut as a wave of pain rolled over him. He slowly came out from unconsciousness and began being more aware of his current situation.

 _“Where am I anyway?”_ he mused.

Glancing around he realised quite quickly that he was lying in the middle of what looked like a forest. He wasn’t really sure how dense the forest was, and the further out into the distance he looked the darker it was, covered entirely by shadows. He lifted his head up weakly and leaned on his elbows, grunting in subdued pain, to look down at his own body; he was half covered by a thick layer of leaves and branches, as though someone had tried to conceal that he was even lying there.

His shoes, woolly hat and coat were missing; he could tell that much even in the darkness, and he was drenched and shivering. He’d clearly been lying amidst the leaves and branches for a while. He grazed his hand along the floor around him and felt his hand run through soggy and wet mud. It had rained recently, he deduced, which explained why he was so wet. _“How long have I been lying here? it feels like I got run over by a fucking truck.”_ He thought to himself, and as he tried to remember what he had done before losing consciousness he quickly realized something.

“Why can’t I remember?” he mumbled out loud to himself in a small voice before breaking out into a violent coughing fit, causing pain to erupt in various parts of his body. He gasped and clenched his teeth, withstanding the pain as he waited for it to pass and end. _“What the fuck, I can remember what clothes I’m missing but not what I did today?”_ he questioned internally. The painful throbbing that was at the back of his head returned with a vengeance, he had felt the heavy throbbing emanating from that area since he’d woken up and had tried his best to ignore it.

He weakly reached up behind his head and inched his fingers towards the area, as soon as his fingertips made contact he hissed suddenly and retracted his arm quickly. He felt something wet, sticky and warm on his fingertips, and brought his hand closer to his face to get a better look.

“I’m… bleeding?”

What on earth happened to him? He’s bruised, injured and bleeding on a forest floor with no signs of civilization anywhere around him, it’s the middle of the night, and he’s wet and cold and missing random articles of his own clothing, not to mention that apparently his missing chunks of his own memory. He closed his eyes and tried concentrating on what he could remember, tried putting the broken and scattered memories he still had back together and into order.

If he thought hard enough he would see flashes of things, what stood out to him the most was a faint memory at the back of his head of him and Armin walking along the outskirts of the forest, they’re talking to each other but no matter how hard he tries he can’t remember a word of what they discussed. He remembers Armin turning to look at him as he finishes his sentence, smiling at Eren warmly before turning his attention back to the direction they were walking in.

 _“All I can remember is that I was with Armin… but where were we going? It was definitely day time when I was with him, the sun was pretty high up in the sky. That means a good couple of hours have passed since then. But where is Armin now? ugh this is fucking frustrating."_ He thought to himself, glancing back down to his body, still half covered in the leaves.

_“I guess Armin went to get help, maybe he's the one that covered me up too.”_

He couldn’t wait here; he needed to move, to find help. He had no idea how long Armin had been gone; it could be half an hour or an entire day as far as he knew. Maybe Armin got lost looking for a way out; wouldn’t that make it his duty to find his friend too?

With determination Eren pushed himself up, groaning in agony as his body protested against his movements. _“I’m not listening to you, body. Move, I know you can do it!”_ He chastised himself internally.

Eren moaned loudly as he finally managed to get himself on his feet, before his body decided to fail on him again. He fell forward, tripping over his own feet as they struggled to move to stop his descent back towards the ground. He flung his arms out in front of him and latched onto a nearby tree, pushing against the bark with his palms to give himself leverage to stay upright. Eren panted harshly as he struggled to even his breathing again, and waited for the pain to subside before trying again to stand.

With slow and careful movements he finally managed to get his body to comply and stayed standing. His arm wrapped around his ribs as a new pain exploded through his side. “Broken ribs, huh?” he grumbled weakly. He takes deep breathes, and begins slowly walking in a direction, he had no idea where he was heading, but if he walked in one direction long enough surely he’d stumble upon someone, or maybe even Armin, eventually. Eren managed to walk roughly fifteen slow steps before his legs failed him again and he tumbled back to the ground, he screamed in agony as his body impacted on the ground, landing roughly and awkwardly on his front, his face sank into the wet soil of the woodland ground.

He cried out in frustration, why wasn’t his body cooperating? Why was it giving up?

“Why why why” he cried, feeling tears of frustration well up in his eyes before finally breaking down in heavy sobs that echoed through the trees. “Is this where everything ends? Fifteen years of my life leading up to this?! Dying alone in the forest?? WHY?!” he screamed into the mud, eyes closed tightly as thick droplets of tears ran down his cheeks and nose, mouth open wide releasing loud screaming cries of agony and desperation.

He cried for what felt like hours, the sky slowly brightening as morning came. Eren lay on the ground; hand curled into fists, hiccupping to himself in pathetic whimpers. "I'm sorry Mom, Dad, Mikasa... Armin. I'm sorry for not trying harder, my body won't move anymore... i'm sorry, i'm sorry." he cried out quietly, another sob wrecking through his bruised body. He could see darkness creeping along the corners of his eyesight. Exhaustion was gripping him, and he was losing consciousness quickly. The last thing Eren saw before blacking out was the orange glow of the rising sun the distance, and then nothing but darkness.

 

* * *

 

 

**Levi Ackerman**

**January 27th 2016**

 

It had been two weeks since Levi had been transferred from Sina to Shiganshina. He was still trying to get used to the sudden transition from living in a bustling and busy city to living in a small town in the countryside. When he moved here he had expected to live in relative peace and quiet, nothing bad ever happened in towns like Shiganshina. That idea quickly crumbled last week since the disappearance of two teenage boys was reported. Levi looked down at the papers he held in his hand, slowly picking up his cup of tea by the rim with his right hand, slowly sipping at the scalding hot tea. His eyes scanned the words on the report for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

Eren Jaeger and Armin Arlert.

They had disappeared sometime after 3pm on January 20th. Their last known whereabouts was Trost Street at 2:30pm; where Mikasa Ackerman, Sasha Blaus and Connie Springer separated from the two boys and headed back towards Connie Springers house on Ragako Street. CCTV on a nearby shop caught the two boys purchasing beverages at 3pm. These two incidences were the last times the boys were seen.

Levi had a high suspicion that the two boys were no longer alive, but he couldn’t voice these opinions to the families, not when they had such high hopes that they will see their children again. It was these kinds of cases that Levi hated the most, cases involving children. They were only fifteen, and though they would both probably protest that they weren’t children anymore as most fifteen year old teenagers do, in Levi’s eyes they were kids. Snot nosed brats.

Snot nosed brats that didn’t deserve whatever had happened to them.

He’d heard rumours around the town that perhaps the two of them had run away together, he was told by many of the townsfolk that had known the two boys well that they had big dreams of travelling the world together. This would be a plausible theory if not for the accounts of their friends and the CCTV footage that was gathered that showed no signs that the two were planning to run away. From the footage caught in the shop it revealed that the two boys hadn’t even been carrying backpacks, and searches of both their rooms revealed that neither had taken their passports, which would make it difficult to even leave the country to begin with.

So that idea was quickly dismissed. And that left only two theories, either they were both involved in an accident somewhere, or foul play was involved. Levi leaned towards the theory of foul play. The town of Shiganshina was small and everybody knew everybody, so either a passing stranger had something to do with the disappearance of the two boys, or someone in the town did.

In a small town like this everyone is a suspect.

There was a short series of taps at his door and Hanji stuck her head in through the crack, her face serious which was a stark contrast to her usual dopey grin. “Levi, we just received a call from the hospital.”

“And what did they have to say?” he asked, his eyes still focused on the report in his hands as he took another gulp of his tea, now at a drinkable temperature.

“A young man was taken to the hospital in the next town over. He’s been unconscious since he was brought in and he had no form of ID on him, but he woke up not too long ago. Levi, it’s one of the boys.” She explained.

Levi paused as he was bringing the cup back to his lips, before quickly setting the cup down. “What injuries has he sustained? Is there another officer on their way there?” He questioned her.

“Nope! You’re the first one I’ve told, Levi! I thought since you’ve been kinda fixated on this case all week that you’d like to be the one that interviews the boy.” She said with a shit eating grin, he glared at her, still not used to her personality and how she could switch between serious mode and bat shit crazy mode. “Why the other town, doesn’t Shiganshina have its own hospital?” he asked.

Hanji gave a dramatic sigh, “Y’know Levi you really should know what is and isn’t in this town by now, but I’ll let you off for now since you’ve been busy with this case. Shiganshina only has a general practice surgery, nothing that’s equipped with the proper tools and machinery to give the level of care the boy needed. The nearest place he could be sent was in the next town, it’s roughly around 45 minutes away by car.” She explained.

He sighed, getting up from his chair and grabbing the jacket he had resting on the back of it and swinging it on in one smooth motion. “I’m going then; I’m assuming you’re coming along?” He asked, grabbing the car keys from the desk. Hanji’s usual goofy grin crawled back onto her face as she moved to allow Levi to exit through his office door. “Of course! We’re partners, and this is the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for all week!” she exclaimed, skipping along after him.

It was a breakthrough, Levi had been almost certain that the boys wouldn’t return alive, and here he was proven wrong by the miracle boy. But only one had been found, and that means the other one was still out there, the other boy with the uncertain fate. Hopefully the boy that was found will have the answers they need to find his friend, before it was too late.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is really just building up the backgrounds of some of the characters, so not really all that much happens in it...  
> ehehe  
> We'll get to the more exciting stuff eventually, gotta work my way up to it.  
> Crime/Mystery/Dramas always start off slow, right?  
> -o-
> 
> I also don't have an editor for this, so if you see mistakes please don't hesitate to let me know!

**Mikasa Ackerman**

**January 27th 2016**

If she were completely honest, being sat in a hospital staring at her unconscious and injured brother recovering from whatever ordeal he’d gone through was not what she imagined happening this time last week. When she’d split up from Eren and Armin to go to Connies house last week she expected to go home sometime in the evening, and sit down on the couch with Eren and watch a movie on Netflix.

Instead what she got was Eren’s parents freaking out because he wasn’t home yet and his phone was apparently switched off. At this point the police had already been called and were on their way to ask questions about Eren. She found out at this point that Armin had also not returned home.

She should have gone with them.

She had been thinking that small sentence repeatedly over the last week. She felt guilty, responsible and useless in the face of the events that had happened. She had constantly wondered if the events that had happened would be different had she gone with them to wherever they were going. Would they be safe? Or would she be missing along with them?

When the detectives had asked her if she knew where the two of them had been planning on going she realised that she had no idea, she berated herself on why she didn’t have the common sense to at least ask them where they were planning on going.

If she had known their destination and could have told the detectives would they have been able to find them sooner? Or in Armin’s case would he even be found at all? He was still missing, after all.

_She should have gone, she should have gone, she should have gone._

She had felt trapped and caged because she couldn’t go and try to find them. Carla and the detectives in charge of the case had strictly forbidden her from trying to look for her two closest friends, and she had been very much prepared to do it, with or without police help. She would do anything for those two.

The only thing that had stopped her from sneaking out to look for them was Carla. 

_Carla grabbed onto her shoulders suddenly, pulling her forward so that they were staring directly into each other’s eyes. Her eyes were glistening, lined with tears that were so close to falling; eyes reflecting the anguish of a worried mother. Mikasa could tell she was tired and stressed. Carla usually took great care in her appearance, her hair was always neat and her makeup though light was done perfectly to bring out her natural beauty. But now her hair was tied haphazardly over her shoulder, wiry and untamed and there was not a glimpse of make-up on her face as though reflecting her ragged mentality at that moment. Her little boy was missing she had no time to worry about appearances now._

_Her grip on Mikasa’s shoulders tightened, but not to the point where it hurt, as she tried to compose herself before saying: “Listen to me, Mikasa. It’s bad enough that Eren is missing, I can’t lose you too. I can’t. I don’t think my heart could handle it. I need you here, and I need you safe. Do you understand? Let the detectives do their jobs, they will find him. Eren is a fighter, isn’t he? He’s stubborn and strong, he can get through anything.” She exclaimed, her voice cracking and breaking as the tears she firmly held back previously now fell freely down her cheeks. “Trust them, Mikasa. They will bring him home; they will bring both of them home.”_

Mikasa closed her eyes with a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose as she recalled that memory. Thinking about the past week was painful enough, with Carla so close to breaking down completely Mikasa had to act as a pillar of strength in the Jaeger household. Grisha hadn’t handled the disappearance of his son well, and chose to distract himself from what was happening by working longer hours at the General Practice he worked at as a doctor. This meant that days and nights in the Jaeger household consisted of Mikasa and Carla sitting together in tense silence, watching the phone and hoping it would ring and bring good news, or that Eren himself would come waltzing through the door as if nothing had happened.

The door handle to the hospital room rattling brought Mikasa out of her inner musings. The door opened and the two detectives in charge of the case entered the room. “Good Afternoon Uncle Levi, Detective Hanji.” She greeted quietly from her seat next to Eren’s bed, holding his hand in her own, lightly and gently brushing her thumb across his skin in a soothing way.

Levi stood awkwardly, hands in his trouser pockets and still hovering near the door and to Hanji, who was returning the greeting in a far more energetic manner than Mikasa had done.

Mikasa didn’t really know that much about her uncle. He was her mother’s younger brother, and from what she had been told before her parents had died, which wasn’t much, their relationship had soured after a particularly toxic argument that resulted in Levi cutting ties with the rest of the family. This had all happened when she was relatively young, around five years old if she recalled correctly. She had vague and foggy memories of him, but from those memories she gathered that he was just as awkward around people now as he was back then.

She knew he thought that she hated him, and he was both wrong and right at the same time. She didn’t have enough memories of him to make a judgement about whether she liked or hated him, all she knew about him were things she had heard second hand. It was easier to say that she felt indifferent towards him. She started calling him Uncle Levi to see whether they could one day be familial to each other, but just doing that made her and Levi awkward.

But Carla was so pleased when she found out that Mikasa actually had blood relatives, and encouraged her to get to know him, and insisted that she persisted in calling him uncle.

She glanced back towards her uncle, who just nodded in her direction, opting to greet with gestures than with words. Typical.

Detective Hanji approached the bed and looked down at Eren. “From what the report from the hospital told me I was under the impression he had regained consciousness.” Hanji announced, hand on hip and cocking her head sideways in an obvious questioning pose. Detective Hanji was a person that really used her body to speak as well as her mouth when discussing things, Mikasa had realised after repeated contact and discussions with the strange woman.

Mikasa gave her a slight nod, “He did, but not for long. He was mumbling some gibberish but neither me, Carla or Grisha could understand what he was saying. He fell back asleep after that and has been sleeping since.” She explained solemnly.

When she remembered back to when he had woken up he had seemed frightened and panicked, and also unaware of where he was and who was with him. He had actually tried lashing out the best he could but she could tell his body wasn’t working the way he wanted to as he seemed to get more and more agitated, mumbling and whining, before he had worn himself out again. The doctor explained that his behaviour was normal for someone suffering with moderate hypothermia.

Hanji nods in understanding, her hand positioned under her chin to imply she was in deep thought, before twisting her head suddenly towards Levi; who was still standing in the same position, “Levi stop being an awkward cinnamon roll and get over here, she’s only your niece.” She demanded.

Levi grimaced and raised his eyebrow at his partner, “…cinnamon roll?”

“Don’t question me and move that tooshie, mister.” She scolded, pointing at the floor next to her dramatically.

Mikasa found their partner dynamic both strange and confusing. They were two completely opposite people, and even though Hanji did seem to get on Levi’s nerves more often than not from what she had witnessed so far, they seemed to work well together. And if Hanji could get away with talking to Levi like that without being hit, then there must be a good level of respect between them. Mikasa wondered whether they had known each other previously to Levi transferring here, because that level of trust would be impossible to forge in two small weeks.

Levi seemed to huff at her words and approached the bed, standing next to his partner. “Where are your adoptive parents?”

“My parents have just gone home quickly; Eren needs a change of clothes and toiletries.” Emphasising the word ‘Parents’. Even though she called them by their names instead of ‘mom’ or ‘dad’, she was proud to call them her parents, rather than emphasise that she was adopted. Carla always said that she’d treat Mikasa no different from how she treats Eren, regardless of whether they were birthed by her or not.

Right at that moment as if on cue the door opened again, and in walked her parents. They looked tired and ragged; the events of this past week seemed to age the two of them by years. There had been a slight twinge of hope in their eyes since this morning when Eren was brought in to the hospital, but he wasn’t out of the woods yet, he had come in with hypothermia and a lot of external and internal wounds.

“Ah detectives, I didn’t expect to see you here so soon.” Carla greeted a kind and polite smile plastered on her face as she set the bag full of necessities for Eren on the floor next to his bed. Grisha followed behind her, nodding a greeting to the detectives and taking a seat on the left side of Eren’s bed.

“As soon as we got the call we rushed on over, how is he? Mikasa explained that he wasn’t awake that long.” Hanji questioned her tone sympathetic.

“Ah, yes, well as you can see he still hasn’t woken up since, I was actually hoping that he’d wake up again by the time I got back. There isn’t really that much to say, I could tell you what the doctor told me about his condition, but maybe you’re better off speaking to the doctor herself, she could probably go into more detail for you.” Carla suggested. She was now standing next to Grisha who still had yet to say anything; he just stared at Eren intently as if waiting for him to open his eyes. Anyone outside of their family would think Grisha as a cold calculating man, but they were wrong, he was very caring and loving towards his family, he just struggled to express this outwardly sometimes and that gave people the wrong impression.

He and Levi were pretty similar in that regard, she mused.

Hanji nodded and pulled out a small notepad, jotting down a few notes quickly before snapping it shut loudly, “Ok then, I guess we’re off to look for Miss Doctor. What’s her name?”

Carla paused a moment, clearly trying to remember the name of the doctor assigned to her son.

“Petra Ral, that’s her name.” Grisha suddenly spoke up from beside her, speaking for the first time since entering the room.

“…Did you just say Petra Ral?” Levi suddenly questioned from across the room, in a tone that she hadn’t heard from him before.

Clearly the tone interested Hanji as well as she turned to give Levi a sly grin.

“Someone you know, Shorty?”

Levi had the look on his face that seemed to say he was internally berating himself from saying anything at all, of course Hanji would ask questions, Mikasa didn’t even know her that well and she still knew the woman was the definition of nosy.

“None of your business, nutjob. Come on, let’s go.” He mumbled, before nodding his head in the direction of the door and turning on his heel and exiting the door. Hanji looked positively excited to question her partner when they were in private, and with a joyful wave skipped out the door after Levi.

**Levi Ackerman**

**January 27th 2016**

Him and his big mouth.

He was usually so tight lipped about things in his past or even things about him in general. Just hearing Petra’s name had surprised him so much that he’d automatically asked for clarification. It just came right out of his mouth without passing through his brain first apparently.

Hanji was definitely not going to let this go, but he suppose there’s no avoiding it now. Even if he denied knowing Petra; which Hanji wouldn’t fall for, she isn’t dumb, Petra would confirm that their acquainted as soon as she saw him.

But honestly he’d never expected Petra to be working in a small countryside hospital like this; she’d always had big dreams of helping people, to be the best doctor she could be. It was because of this that he’d always assumed that she had gone to one of those top notch hospitals in the city. They’d both met in school during their teenage years, when they were both trying to figure out what they wanted to do in life, and it just so happened that he wanted to go into criminology and she wanted to go into medicine.

They’d become close friends, not best friends by any means but they were both part of the same friend group. They’d actually even tried dating for a while before deciding that they were better off friends. He was kind of glad that their disastrous attempt at a relationship didn’t ruin their friendship at all; in fact he’d even go as far to say that they become even better friends after it.

They’d lost contact after school when they both went their separate ways to chase their own goals, She had tried to contact him numerous time, to arrange meetings to ‘catch up’, but he’d been a city police officer at the time, too busy and too focused to even think about meeting up with someone for drinks. He had been the type of officer to willingly do overtime at work after all, his work was his life.

She’d eventually stopped trying after a while and he thought that would be the end of it, that he wouldn’t see or hear from her again.

He was wrong, so very wrong.

He hoped things weren’t going to be awkward between them now since they hadn’t spoken in so long, he’d hate for it to affect their questionings for this case. As impassive as he was he really wanted to get to the bottom of this, to find out who did this to Eren Jaeger and to find Armin Arlert, preferably alive.

He just needed to find out from Petra what her opinion was, whether the injuries Eren received were from an accident, or whether they were caused by a person.


End file.
